Читать книгу The Regency Season: Wicked Rakes: How to Disgrace a Lady / How to Ruin a Reputation - Bronwyn Scott - Страница 12

Chapter Five

Who would have thought the road to nowhere in particular led straight to the Earl of Folkestone’s library? Granted the journey had taken the better part of ten years, but right now that only served to make matters worse.

Merrick shifted ever so slightly in his chair. It was one thing to be called on the proverbial carpet by a stuffy peer when one was a young buck about town. It was another when one was nearly thirty and an established rogue. Rogues didn’t get caught engaged in minor infractions. One could be caught in flagrante delicto with a lovely widow and live it down. But one could absolutely not be caught stealing kisses from an earl’s daughter. Yet it seemed he had been and it seemed he was going to pay. The terrible irony was that he hadn’t done anything. This time, everything was innocent. Admittedly it looked bad: her apparel, his shirt sleeves, the time of night, their close proximity at the table. Most of all the looming reality of the damning wager with Redfield. All the signs pointed to disaster. In another five minutes it might even have escalated to a real disaster; he might actually have claimed the kiss he was accused of stealing.

‘You were attempting to kiss my daughter,’ Folkestone spoke, his face a mask of icy contemplation.

‘Yes, the key word here is attempting. I had not yet achieved that goal.’ Merrick pointed out. Folkestone frowned, not appreciating the clarification.

‘I do not care if you were attempting to turn metal into gold. It does not change the fact that you were alone with her at midnight.’

‘In the library, sir,’ Merrick protested. He’d been about to say the library was the least amorous room in a house, but then he remembered what he’d got up to in the library at the Rowlands’ ball a few weeks ago with the lovely Mrs Dennable and thought better of it.

‘Thank goodness Redfield is the soul of discretion,’ Folkestone commented.

Assuming he has a soul. Merrick let a raised eyebrow convey his question of the assumption. Redfield had set it up, he was sure of that, if not the man’s motives. But saying as much would appear petty and it hardly sounded better to say ‘any girl would have done as well; it just so happened your daughter walked in first’.

‘You’ve compromised my daughter, but that does not make her an innocent in this. She could have walked out of the room once you made your presence known,’ Folkestone mused. His sharp dark eyes, the colour of Alixe’s, never left Merrick’s face.

‘Alixe has always been unconventional. A husband and family would go far, I suspect, in settling her and giving her life some stability.’ Merrick sensed Alixe would disagree with her father’s assessment, but discreetly kept it to himself.

Folkestone continued. ‘Alixe needs a husband.’

It took all of Merrick’s willpower to not cringe. He waited for the inevitable. After this evening, Folkestone would expect him to do the right thing and offer for her, a girl he hardly knew.

Folkestone leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers. ‘I am sure you are aware that in most situations of this nature, the gentleman would be expected to marry the lady in question. However, to be blunt, you are not precisely “husband material”, no matter who your father is. You have a reputation ten miles’ long for licentiousness and general mayhem. Here’s what I propose: make my daughter the Toast of the Season.’

Merrick sat a little straighter in his chair, not certain he’d heard correctly or that he’d been reprieved. This option might be worse. ‘Sir, it’s already June. There will only be six weeks left. I hardly think...’

‘Or marry her yourself at Season’s end as penance for your failure,’ Folkestone cut in. ‘You’re not the only gambling man in the room, St Magnus. I know all about your reputation. You have no desire to be leg-shackled. I’m willing to bet you love your freedom enough to see the job done. Goodness knows I’d prefer almost anyone else than you as a son-in-law. I think that’s one thing you and I just might agree upon. You no more want to be my son-in-law than I want to have you, no matter what Jamie thinks of you as a friend.’

Valiantly ignoring the insult, Merrick tried a different approach. ‘Sir, the people I know are not the best, I’m not sure...’

This too was easily dismissed. ‘You’re here, aren’t you?’ Yes, dammit, he hadn’t meant to insult the earl’s sterling reputation.

‘You do have connections when you choose to exert them, St Magnus. Exert them now or accept the consequences.’ Folkestone rose, signalling the end of the interview. ‘There’s really nothing else to discuss. This is not your decision to make. You made your choice when you engaged my daughter in the library for your silly wager. You have a little under two weeks here in the country to get her up to snuff and the rest of the Season to make her attractive to gentlemen or else align yourself with the fact that you will be taking a September bride.’

The study door opened, admitting Lady Folkestone, hastily dressed and followed by Redfield. ‘I’ve brought your wife,’ he said with a tragic flourish. ‘Sometimes a woman’s view can soften these things.’ Yes, definitely a tragic flourish. Surely a man as astute as Folkestone could see through Redfield’s façade of helpfulness.

Lady Folkestone was no shrinking violet. She sailed to her husband’s side and demanded an explanation, which Folkestone promptly gave. Afterwards, Lady Folkestone turned her thoughtful gaze in Merrick’s direction. ‘So, you’re to marry our daughter?’

‘Not necessarily, my lady.’ Merrick replied smoothly. ‘I hope to help her find a more suitable match.’

Lady Folkestone laughed. ‘There is no such thing as a suitable match for Alixe. We’ve tried for years now. When I say “we”, I mean London society collectively, not just her family. She’ll have none of the young men on offer.’ The bitterness surprised him. It wasn’t the attitude he expected a mother to have.

Lady Folkestone waved a dismissive hand. ‘She has no regard for the family’s wishes. After the last business with Viscount Mandley, all she wants is her manuscripts and her peace.’

Then why don’t you let her have it? Was that so much to ask? Folkestone had enough money to support one spinster daughter. The vehemence of his thoughts shocked Merrick.

‘Ah, Mandley. That was an unfortunate business indeed. She’ll not see a better offer,’ Redfield commiserated from the doorway where he hovered as some post-facto guard to their privacy.

‘Hardly,’ Merrick scoffed. ‘Mandley didn’t want a wife, he wanted a governess for his three daughters whom he didn’t have to pay.’ The man might be handsome for a fellow over forty and have plenty of blunt, but he was legendary in London’s clubs for his unnecessary penny-pinching. He’d once asked if his subscription to White’s could be reduced for the months he spent in the country.

‘There’s nothing wrong with frugality,’ Redfield retorted.

Ah, that reminded him. There was one score he could settle tonight. Merrick turned and shot Redfield a hard stare. He couldn’t do anything more for his own situation at present, but he could still salvage Ashe’s. He rose and approached Lady Folkestone. ‘I deeply apologise for the untoward actions which have taken place here tonight. I will do my utmost to see that Lady Alixe’s reputation emerges from this thoughtless escapade unscathed.’ With that, he bent over her hand with all the charm he possessed and kissed her knuckles. ‘If you will excuse me? I will look forward to meeting with Lady Alixe in the morning.’

Merrick brushed past Redfield on his way to the door, stopping long enough to murmur, ‘I believe you owe me. I’ll be waiting outside and expecting payment.’

* * *

Merrick found Ashe and Riordan alone in the deserted billiards room, each of them slumped in their chairs. Crisis always had a way of thinning out the crowd. He tossed down a substantial roll of pound notes on the billiards table. ‘There’s your portion of the winnings.’

Ashe sat up a bit straighter. ‘How did you manage this? Were you faster than Redfield?’

Merrick grinned. Besting Redfield was about the only good thing to have happened tonight. ‘I kissed Lady Folkestone’s hand right in front of him. He had to be the witness to his own dare.’

Ashe visibly relaxed and reached for the winnings. ‘Redfield had it planned all along. After you left, he was bragging he knew a certain lady had been visiting the library the last few nights.’

Merrick stiffened at that. ‘Was he careless enough to share her name?’ Folkestone was counting on discretion, on the fact that no one but he and Redfield knew Alixe had been caught with him in the library.

Ashe shook his head. ‘No, no names, just that he knew.’

Merrick nodded. Good. But it didn’t make sense he’d deliberately set up a wager he’d lose. Unless he thought Alixe wouldn’t succumb.

‘But I can surmise from the presence of Lady Folkestone at the interview that the lady in question was Lady Alixe. Jamie will not be pleased,’ Ashe said quietly.

‘Jamie is not to know.’

‘Are wedding bells in your future?’ Riordan slurred, offering Merrick his flask.

Merrick waved it a way with a rueful smile. ‘Sort of.’ He explained the agreement to hush up the indiscretion if he ‘helped’ Lady Alixe become the Toast of London.

‘Then you have truly become a cicisbeo, a man whose status and welfare in society rests on his ability to please a lady,’ Riordan slurred, unmistakably well into his cups. ‘You know, in Italy it works this way, too. Usually it’s the husband who picks a cicisbeo for his wife, but in this case, her father has picked you to bring her out into society.’

‘I don’t think it’s an apt comparison at all,’ Merrick snapped, eager to cut off Riordan’s rambling. He was showing all the characteristic signs of launching into a full-blown lecture on Italian culture.

Ashe idly twirled the stem of an empty snifter. ‘Do you remember that night at Oxford when we formed the cicisbei club?’

Merrick nodded, losing himself for a moment in the reminiscences of a long-ago time. They’d been foolhardy and a bit naïve. It had seemed a wicked thrill to commit themselves to a lifestyle of ‘love’, to devote themselves to the pursuit of beauty in all its feminine forms.

‘I suppose I’ve been a cicisbeo long before tonight,’ Merrick sighed in response to Riordan’s comment. He’d made a large part of his living based on charm and romance. He might not be a ‘kept’ man who was obviously dependent on a woman’s gifts to him, but if he looked closely enough at his life, he was dependent in other ways, not that the honesty made him proud to admit it.

A ‘life of love’ wasn’t as glamorous as they’d imagined it all those years ago sitting in a student-populated tavern. Then, the road to the future had been long and untravelled—anything was possible. They’d toasted the fact that they were second sons with no expectations placed upon them. There was nothing to inherit but a future they’d carve for themselves. They’d make great reputations as London’s finest lovers. It had seemed like jolly good fun at the time.

‘Don’t worry about it,’ Ashe said rather suddenly, his eyes serious and sober in contrast to Riordan’s. ‘We’ve all sold ourselves in some way or another. It’s impossible not to.’

Merrick stood, adopting a posture of humour, not wanting to be sucked into Ashe’s maudlin philosophy. ‘There’s no time to worry about it. I’ve got a bride to transform and a bridegroom to find.’

Heaven forbid that bridegroom end up being him, Merrick mused, taking himself out into the darkened hallway and finding the way to his room. He wasn’t a marrying man. His father had made sure of that ages ago and, in the intervening years, he hadn’t done much to improve the notion. He was well aware there were too many rumours surrounding him and his profligate behaviours. While the rumours inspired curiosity they also inspired distrust.

An image of Alixe’s face, alight with excitement over the translation, came to mind. Tonight had been an unlooked-for surprise. He’d not expected to enjoy the work so much. In fact, there’d been a point where he’d forgotten about the stupid wager altogether. For Alixe’s sake, he couldn’t forget himself like that again. To a woman of her standards, it wouldn’t matter that while many of the rumours were true, a few of the most damaging were false.

* * *

Alone in his room, Archibald Redfield drank a silent toast. St Magnus would be gone by sunrise. A man like him had no particular code of honour. With the matrimonial noose dangling over his head, St Magnus would run as fast as he could, leaving the path to Alixe open. Archibald would be on that path, ready to approach Folkestone with an offer to rescue Alixe. Who knew what kind of rumours St Magnus would spread? It had been an expensive victory, but worth it. In one move, he’d managed to eliminate St Magnus from the house party and he’d put Alixe Burke in a corner from which he would gallantly offer to rescue her.

Archibald took another swallow of brandy. An engagement would scotch any blemish to Alixe’s reputation. Archibald was certain after this last débâcle, Folkestone would be eager to marry Alixe off to the first man who asked, even if he was a mere mister, and Archibald would be there, only too ready to comply. Folkestone would be grateful and that could be useful, too, in perpetuity. Everything was working out brilliantly at last. He couldn’t make Alixe marry him, but Folkestone could.

* * *

‘You cannot make me marry anyone,’ Alixe said evenly, matching her father glare for glare across the expanse of his polished mahogany desk. So, this was his plan, the plan she’d waited all night to hear. Merrick St Magnus was to marry her or find someone else to do the deed for him. It was implicitly understood that was the only reason for being made over into the Toast of London.

‘I can and I will. We’ve tolerated your foibles long enough,’ came the reply.

Her foibles? Alixe’s temper rose. ‘My work is important. I am restoring history about our region. This is as much the history of Kent as it is the history of our family.’ Her family knew that. ‘You think it’s important as long as Jamie’s the one doing it.’

‘It’s not appropriate for a woman. No man wants a woman who is more interested in ancient manuscripts than she is in him.’ Her father stood up and strode around the desk. ‘I know what you’re thinking, miss. You’re thinking somehow you’ll get out of this, that you’ll reject every suitor St Magnus finds and you’ll find a way to run him off at the very last. If you do that, I’ll cut you off without a penny and you can see exactly how it is for a woman on her own in this world without the protection of a man’s good name.’

That was precisely what she was thinking: the driving-the-suitors-away part anyway. The last bit worried her. Her father would do it, too. He was furious this time. If it was possible, he was even more furious over this than he had been about her rejection of Viscount Mandley.

She had to throw him a proverbial bone if she meant to renegotiate this. ‘I’ll go to London after the house party and finish out the rest of the Season, without St Magnus.’ That should appease him.

‘No. You’ve had a chance, more than one chance, to turn London to your favour.’ Her father sighed, but she did not mistake it for a sign that he might be relenting. ‘The arrangement isn’t all bad. St Magnus has a certain savoir-faire to him; he’s stylish and charming and he’s risky without being a full-fledged black rake, although he skates pretty close to the edge. Being with him will bring you a cachet of your own, it will help others see you in a different, in a better light. There’s no real chance of actually marrying him, thank goodness. Use him and drop him, Alixe, if he’s so distasteful to you. Everyone has a place in this world. It’s time you learned yours.’

So much for her father’s version of sympathy.

Alixe cast a beseeching glance her mother’s direction, only to receive a slow shake of the head. ‘Your father and I are together on this, Alixe.’ No help from that quarter. Perhaps she could cajole Jamie into pleading her case. There were any number of stories he could likely tell that would persuade her father to keep her as far from St Magnus as possible.

‘One more thing,’ her father added. ‘We are to say nothing of this to Jamie. It would create a grievous rift in his friendship. We’ve all agreed to keep this incident quiet.’ There went her last hope. Now all that was left was to appeal directly to St Magnus. Surely he was no more enamoured of the tangle they found themselves in than she was.